The 2009 Darwin celebrations

Editorial

Have you heard of the massive celebrations in progress around the world to promote
the life and achievements of Charles Darwin?

Nature launched a special issue featuring his life, his science and his
legacy.1 The Natural History
Museum in London, UK, dedicated a website promoting a national program of events
celebrating his scientific ideas.2
Museums, universities and science organizations are networking globally to promote
Darwin through exhibitions, lectures and conferences. Events are planned in dozens
of countries including the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, China, South Korea, Portugal,
Germany, Egypt and Hong Kong.

Stanford University, California, will jet 90 pilgrims along the route of Darwin’s
Beagle voyage. Even art exhibitions and music festivals are featuring paintings,
sculpture and orchestral works praising Darwin and evolution.3

How odd. Why is the whole world caught up this year in such euphoria over Darwin?

Why haven’t the achievements of other great scientists ever captured the global
imagination—scientists like Sir Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, James Maxwell,
Albert Einstein or Gregor Mendel?

Because Darwin 2009 is not about science. Look at who’s cheering.

The International Humanists Union honour Darwin because evolution, in their words,
‘made creator deities redundant’.4
Note, evolution made the Creator redundant.

Sir Julian Huxley gloated, ‘Darwinism removed the whole idea of God as the
creator of organisms from the sphere of rational discussion.’5 Underline, Darwin removed God.

It’s a global campaign against God. Darwin and science are just tools.

So it is not about science. It’s a global campaign against God. Darwin and
science are just tools.

In fact, modern scientific discoveries increasingly point to the design of the Creator—like
the amazing catapult photographed in the humble bunchberry flower (p. 32*)
and the unbelievable neuro-motor-mechanical control in our own finger tips (p. 31*). Design is not an argument from ignorance but is
based on observation—as experience with the ‘simple’
light bulb demonstrates (p. 36*).

Natural selection, hailed as Darwin’s greatest discovery, is incapable of
producing new designs and features—it just tinkers with what is already
there (p. 52*).

And evolution does not have enough time. Geologist Ariel Roth shows how the strata
point to past global catastrophe (p. 46*), wiping
out the millions of years needed for evolution to work.

Photo stock.xchng

Atheistic ideas are much promoted these days, but this is not the first time in
history that atheism has become popular. After the Revolution in France in the late
1700s, the atheistic chiefs of the Commune of Paris sought to remove every remnant
of religion from government; they soon found themselves engulfed in a Reign of Terror.

That’s not surprising. Law Professor, Augusto Zimmerman, says atheistic ideas
have consequences for society (p. 15*). ‘Without
God’s law, anything goes. There is no protection against tyranny and social
oppression.’

Darwinian evolution, more than any other idea, has caused people to reject God and
the Bible (p. 12*), which is why we encourage
Christians to rethink making Darwin a hero.

In this year of Darwin, we need resources to uphold the truth against evolution.
Creation magazine does just that. May this new issue strengthen and encourage
you. Don’t forget to share it with others. Little by little, one by one, people’s
minds need to be opened to the truth—that God created.

*The page numbers refer to articles in this issue
of Creation magazine. You will be able to access these articles on the
web in March 2010. In the meantime you can view the articles by subscribing to the
magazine.